Skinny fat people - help with the last few inches?

fitspo145

I've been struggling with the last 2 inches off my waist for 2 years now. Currently at 28 inches and want to drop down to 26 and exercise 5-6 times a day and eating 5-6 times a day. All clean.

Been reading so many different mixed opinions on eating more to lose vs eating less to lose, bulking then cutting versus just cutting etc. I wanted to know if any other skinny fat people out there have some success stories they can share and what techniques worked for them?

Really want to try shedding the last few inches before Christmas.

PippiNe

What type of exercise are you doing 5-6 times a day and for what duration. Making your diary public may help us offer some more insight.

geekyjock76

There is no argument or debate in your case. With only 4kg to lose, your deficit should be no greater than 300 calories below actual maintenance. I don't know how much exercise you are doing but hope you did not select 0.9 kg (2 lb) per week weight loss as your goal. It should be set to 0.23kg (0.5 lbs) per week.

fitspo145

I am doing the Insanity programme on repeat . So it's about an hour a day and I go to zumba once or twice a week. MFP has put me at 1200 cals because of my relatively sedentary job but feel after reading several posts here that it is far too little?

Although I joined MFP a while back I am still quite new to calorie counting so I get a little lost with the term NET cals and eating back etc.

Thanks for the helpful posts guys and will probably make my diary public this week onwards since I plan to be a lot better at logging . I have been terrible sticking to it since my iPhone's gone to pot.

geekyjock76

Let me explain how MFP works.

But first, let's talk about TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure).

TDEE is the total amount of energy in calories your body burns throughout the entire day. In other words, it is the maximum amount of calories you can eat to fuel your day and relatively maintain body weight and composition. For instance, I lift weights 4-5 days a week and run interval sprints for a total of 15 minutes 4 days a week - I can eat up to 2900 calories to maintain my weight with this lifestyle which includes a lightly active job.

Your body needs fuel to satisfy energy needs from four sources according to TDEE: Resting Metabolic Rate, Thermic Effect of Food (calories used to process food eaten), Exercise Activity and Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis.

MFP only considers the calories burned from RMR, TEF and NEAT - it does not include the calories burned from exercise. So if, for example, you burn 500 calories from exercise, you need to account for that -500 that MFP does not include. Think of it as a default deficit already set in place before you even choose your weekly weight loss goal (deficit).

In your case, it is recommended you choose 0.5 lb per week weight loss as a goal since you do not have much body fat, relatively speaking (The less fat mass one has, the smaller the deficit needs to be). This 0.5 lb loss is in the neighborhood of a 250 calorie deficit. So if you choose a 0.5 lb weekly loss, it'll create a deficit of 250 calories by default.

Remember, though, that MFP didn't include those -500 exercise calories. Assuming you really do burn 500 calories in exercise, if you do not eat them back, you are actually establishing a much larger 750 calorie deficit aimed at 1.5 lb per week loss, which is way too much for you with the amount of body fat you presently have.

Regarding NET calories, think of it this way. You eat 1750 calories and burn 250 in exercise. Your NET, or difference, is 1500 calories. This is how much actual energy in calories your body has to fuel itself.

popsicklestar

If you figure it out, let me know.

fitspo145

Thanks for your detailed post geekyjock! It's really helpful! Firstly I'll reset my goals on MFP and will make sure to eat back all my cals lost during exercise. I was wondering why MFP would set me at such a low cal intake. :P

katealbright

I will tell you what happened to me because we sound similar but pleeeaasssee take it with a grain of salt because these things aren't the same for everyone.

I did DVD training as well, which, like Insanity, was mostly cardio and bodyweight exercise. I eventually got to the point of doing this every day. I got my waist to 27 and got stuck there. Against my better judgment, I fell mercy to the forums and I tried methods of significantly lowering calories and upping calories (at different times of course), both to no avail. Another common approach is weight training, so I switched to pure resistance training daily and sloooooowly struggled down to 26.5.

Eventually, I decided on a new approach based on what sounded enjoyable, sustainable, and moderate. I started to calorie cycle (focus on net calories weekly rather than daily), work out every other day, try to stay generally active in my life.


It looks something like this:

day 1: weights: upper body circuit training
day 2: walk or bike to do errands
day 3: cardio: interval running
day 4: go out dancing with friends
day 5: weights: lower body circuit training
day 6: clean the house
day 7: cardio: yoga

This was the sweet spot for me and within a month I was down to 25 inches. I love this method. It gives me wiggle room in my life calorie-wise and time-wise and I feel it is the right balance of cardio, weights, and non-exercise activity. And it's easy to adjust for weight-loss or maintenance.

fitspo145

Thanks for your post katealbright. I'm envious.. sounds like you found the perfect balanced lifestyle! It got me thinking that perhaps I am over-thinking things a little bit. When I finish this round of Insanity I am planning to just use it every other day and incorporate weight training and finally get back to my salsa classes!

Think you could give me a quick low down on what you mean by calorie cycle? As in eating less one day and more the other? And do you have a strict diet (i.e. paleo, other low carb) or do you just eat whatever you fancy?

geekyjock76

The default setting on MFP is 1.0 lb per weekly loss, unless you change it. By adjusting it to 0.5 lbs per week, your net calorie goal should increase above 1200 calories. Thus, you would eat your NET goal, plus at least some of your exercise calories.

Regarding your exercise calories, make sure you do not overestimate the number.

Alternatively, some people opt to estimate calories based on various TDEE calculators. One of which is here:

http://www.weightrainer.net/losscalc.html

If I enter in the following stats for you (weight=132 lbs; body fat %=25%; weekly fat loss goal=0.5 lbs; and moderately active), I get this:

kcals per day to maintain current weight:= 2077 kcals/day (Let's round it down to 2000 calories to be a bit conservative).

Diet to Lose 0.5 lbs of Weight Per Week:
kcals per day: 1827k cals/day (Adjusted to 1750 calories).

You can eat up a total of 1750 calories with that much exercise for a month or two and see what happens. Make sure you use a food scale to weigh all food you eat to get accurate calories from what you eat. If you notice a general trend of weight reducing, over the course of a month or two, then you are on the right track. And if you are losing an average of 0.5 lb per week, then you'll pretty much on target and do not have to adjust caloric intake at all.

Lastly, be mindful of eating high-sodium, high-carb meals because that can add temporary water weight and can hide an actual loss. Thus, try to be consistent with what you eat and how much you exercise the few days prior to weighing yourself on a scale.

GrabacrPD

^ What this man is saying! Educate yourselves...then improve yourselves

fitspo145

Thanks guys .

I think I'll stick to the TDEE method. I'm not very confident in how MFP estimates calorie burn for each exercise so I'd much rather go with a method that takes into account my activity level as a whole!

Really appreciate all the tips! Cannot wait to revamp my meal plans.

katealbright

Sure no problem

Yes, calorie cycling means you have a different amount of net calories every day -- but you oscillate around a calorie goal so that by the end of the week your calories per day average out.

So say I am supposed to eat 1200 calories per day, that's 8400 calories per week. So my net calories throughout the week would something like this:

Mon: 1200
Tues: 900
Weds: 1400
Thurs: 1300
Friday: 1000
Saturday: 1500
Sunday: 1100
Weekly Total: 8400

It's not an exact science, and some weeks I am over calories and some weeks I am under calories -- so this evens out over the month, and presumably months even out over years. I try to think of this as the whole "It's not a diet, it's a lifestyle" spiel. lol

To answer your other question, I am vegan and have been for many years. Although that generally steers me in a healthy direction, veganism alone isn't a weight loss tool. You can eat nothing but Sour Patch Kids and be vegan, which I may or may not used to do haha moving along!

I do try to hold pretty true to 55% carbs, 30% fat, and 15% protein for my macros. TONS of veggies and fruit, healthy fats, nuts and beans, and fermented foods. Lots of colorful, fresh food -- the color of the food is tell-tale of the nutrients. I like to think of eating a rainbow every day lol. And I really believe in eating whole foods and not supplements, processed food, or isolated nutrients. One of my favorite sayings is, "It's not the beta carotene, it's the carrot."

That being said (and that being the crux of what I'm saying) I eat what I want. When I crave sweets I eat sweets. But I love to experiment with whole food alternatives, and always do. So for example, I don't buy the vegan ice cream with isolated soy protein and carrageenan and try to call myself healthy just because it didn't come out of a cow. Instead, I make my own sorbet out of bananas, mango, or berries.

btw if you have never tried that, you need to... today haha

I kind of went off on a tangent, but I hope that answers your question lol

fitspo145

Haha thanks katealbright. And homemade sorbets sound delicious. Think I could get the recipe off you?

katealbright

I shall message you!

Sandigesha

You shouldn't even log you exercises in. 100-200 cals a day dont matter. Just find out what your maintanence calories are on training days/off days. Keep track on sodium as some people can gain a kilo or two of water overnight cause of too high sodium and it will confuse you for a couple of days. So, when you are able to keep the same weight for at least a week, cut 200 calories. Or more/less, depends on how fast you want to lose fat. And do some research on macros.

Chadomaniac

Eat at maintenance

Lift heavy . Stop losing weight

TavistockToad

You shouldn't even log you exercises in. 100-200 cals a day dont matter.

the OP is doing insanity - that burns a few more than 100-200 calories!

One thing to consider is whether you can actually get a 26inch waist? some people just arent built that way. i would focus on bodyfat % rather than waist measurements...

fitspo145

Well lowest measurement I ever got was a 27-inch waist back when I was in university and starving (due to poor financial organisation not weight loss goals ), so I think I should be able to get down to 26. I also am from Asian descent and we usually have a smaller skeletal frame so I think 26 isn't too far a reach.

Body fat % is a little confusing though. I had myself measured twice in two different gyms on the same day and in one I was at 21% and in the other I was at 26% . Not sure how to make a decrease in BF% a target if I cannot even get consistent readings.

geekyjock76

Regardless of which method you use to assess fat mass, stick with one and wait three months before your next test. You can still get assessed once per month, if you like, and record the values simply for tracking purposes; but it's the measurement every three months that will really provide the best evidence of any downward trend.

The reason for delaying between measurements is because each respective method has a certain variation of error. For instance, your body fat percentage could truly remain unchanged, but one test could give a reading a few points off compared to another - as you personally witnessed. Or, you could have realistically reduced body fat percentage by a value of 4 in two months, yet still get the same reading the next time. However, as the months pass by, you should have lost enough fat mass so that, despite the room for error, the readings follow a downward trend.

I forgot to address your "skinny fat" concern earlier.

That is a term describing persons who may fall within a normal weight range but have a disproportionately low amount of lean mass versus fat mass.

To remedy this body composition concern, you must engage in a process where the end goal results in an increase in lean mass with a decrease in body fat. Simply put, you'll start with a calorie restriction phase, followed by a calorie surplus phase and ending with a second calorie restriction phase. Two necessary objectives that must be included throughout are strength training and adequate protein intake.

Strength training with adequate protein will help minimize the amount of lean mass lost during restriction and increase lean mass during a surplus. Note that intensity of strength training must be kept challenging regardless of restriction or surplus phase. Also, during restriction, an intake of 1 gram of protein x lbs of lean mass is the general guideline (eg: 90 grams of protein for 90 lbs of lean mass). During a surplus phase, you can adhere to a minimum of 1.25 grams of protein x lbs of lean mass (eg: 112 grams of protein for 90 lbs of lean mass).

*If you aren't already lifting weights, check out the book titled Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe. It is widely regarded as one of the best instructional books out there because of his clinical yet easily understood approach to explaining everything.

Let's say you restrict calories and get down to 20% body fat. Now, you are ready to raise calories and maintain for a month or so. After maintenance, you'd then assume a modest surplus of 150 to 250 calories above maintenance. You're going to gain some fat during this process, but ideally with a smaller surplus, you may end up gaining slightly more lean mass than fat mass (for example: 1 lb lean mass vs 0.5 lb fat mass).

There is actually a term called P-ratio which simply refers to how much protein (muscle) vs fat is expended during restriction and how much protein (muscle) vs fat is gained during a surplus. Everyone has a different P-ratio resulting in them retaining more muscle during restriction and gaining less fat during a surplus or vice versa.

Anyway, you'd continue this surplus period for a few months until your body fat percentage hits about 25% or so. At the end of this period, you should have gained several lbs of lean mass.

Finally, you'd start your second restriction phase to reduce fat mass but try to maintain as much of the gained lean mass as possible. Again, this is why eating adequate amounts of protein while lifting reasonably heavy is crucial. When it's all said and done, you should be left with an increased lean mass and decreased fat mass for a more favorable body fat percentage.

fitspo145

Thanks geekyjock that was more info then I could ever ask for! Haha sounds like shedding skinny fat is a longer and more gruelling process than I thought it would be. Good to know there's other MFPers out there for some support and advice!

Will definitely check out Starting Strength! Have readjusted my cal goals to my TDEE -20% and will start off with some weights and strength after I finish Insanity in 1.5 weeks.

We'll see how it goes!

xRiverX

Intermittent fast @ maintenance calories,dont eat back exerciser calories,

open diary